John was really looking forward to that. A grandchild. He told her he was coming back for that, and to spoil it beyond belief. Angelica believed him.
It was about 4:45pm when John heard the notification that someone was coming to his door. He looked at his phone and saw that it was Marty. He grinned and went to the door. When Marty got there, he opened it.
“Hey, Marty, good to see you.”
“You, too.” Marty looked over to where Yvonne had gotten up to stick her head around the corner from the other apartment. “Hey, Yvonne. I’m just here because I’m bored and want to go get a beer.” He turned back to John. “Wanna go next door and have a couple?”
John nodded. “Oh, yeah. I’m more than ready.” He turned toward Yvonne. “You wanna come?”
Yvonne gave them the ‘you must be kidding look’. “And listen to you two talk about sports? I think not.”
“Okay, later.” John grabbed his jacket and wallet and they headed out the dor.
John and Marty sat at the bar. They both checked out the bartender. Mary Bradford owned the bar now, and she had hired excellent bartenders who looked and dressed like models. She paid them very well, it was bringing in the crowds, and the crowds were tipping well. This one was about 5’10”, wearing a short jean skirt, a red bra, and a black v-neck t-shirt that made sure you could tell the bra was red. It helped that she was well-endowed, as well. John had ribbed Mary, who fought against discrimination and the objectivation of women, about how she was using sex to sell in her bar.
The bartender grinned when she came to serve them. “Hey, John, Marty. No ladies tonight?”
John shook his head. “Not tonight, Suzy — unless you want to join us.” He grinned.
Suzy laughed and touched him on the arm familiarly. “Yeah, right. Guinness?”
“Yes, both.”
Suzy served them and left. Marty shook his head. “You always have a steady woman and yet others still flirt with you.”
“No, she’s just friendly with both me and Yvonne.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Mary scoffed at that answer.
They had been drinking for about 15 minutes and talking about the upcoming NCAA basketball tournament, when a young woman appeared, approaching the two of them by coming up between their bar stools. They both leaned back a little.
She spoke. “Excuse me,” she said turning and looking at John. “Are you John Jackson?”
John looked at her quizzically. “Yes, who wants to know?”
She held up her phone. “I recognized you from this picture.” John’s photo was on it. “Can I talk to you in private for a moment?”
“If you are looking for an investigator, you should call our agency office. Marty and I work there with some others and you’ll be assigned someone to handle your problem.”
The woman looked back and forth between them. “I was told to go directly to you. Can we talk?”
Marty picked up his beer. “I’ll move down a few stools and you can talk.”
Marty moved and the young lady took his vacated stool. She held out her hand. “Hi. I’m um, well, I’m living is Seattle as Sara O’Connell.” John looked her over. She was a pale, slightly ginger-headed woman, about 5’5″, wearing jeans and a light jacket over a t-shirt. She was pretty, but understated.
“Hi, Miss O’Connell. I’m John. What is this about?”
She glanced around, appearing nervous. “You can call me Mary. Anyway, I was sent here by Dani. She told me to tell you that I was in danger and would need some protection until she could get here.”
John held up his hand to stop her. “Wait. I need to make something clear. I know Dani and I respect what she does. However, I won’t be able to protect you without the support of the others in my agency. I have to bring them in.”
Sara thought about that for a second. “I can’t make that decision. I’ll have to call Dani.”
“When is the next time you can call her?”
“She told me to call when I got to you tonight, but not before 6pm.”
“Well, it’s almost 6 now. Let’s grab a booth and you can call from there.” John got up with his beer and led her to a booth in the far back corner. It was much quieter and a little isolated from the rest of the patrons, at least at this time of the night. She sat on the side with the wall behind her, and John slid in next to her.
At 6pm, Sara called Dani and told her what John had said. Dani wanted to talk John and so they discussed the situation. She was currently getting someone settled and wanted John to hide Mary until she could make arrangements to relocate her. John told her he would do so, but needed the support of his agency. John wouldn’t give away Dani’s identity, but needed assistance to keep Sara out of sight. Dani agreed.
John stood up and waved at Marty, who came over and sat across from him and Sara.
“What’s up?” Marty asked.
John explained about Sara being someone who had been relocated due to the danger to her life from some bad guys. Marty just nodded. He told her that she just needed a place to hide out and be protected.
John then called Yvonne to get her over to the bar before Sara told her story.
John had Marty get everyone another beer, as Sara said she wanted another and Marty and John were dry. He had just come back from the bar when Yvonne came in.
“So, what’s going on?”
“This is Sara. She was hidden out here by Dani.” Yvonne knew Dani, but Marty did not. John turned towards him. “Dani is someone who hides people who are in mortal danger from a bad actor. These are people who do not have anything that they can use to get U.S. Marshal’s protection, so they are kind of left hanging. She has people she has known in certain industries who assist by providing very good IDs and other things. She hid Sara out here, but she hasn’t said why yet. That’s what she’ll tell us now, right Sara?”
Sara looked back and forth between everyone. “Okay. If Dani trusts you, I guess I can, too.” She took a deep breath. “I graduated from high school in May 2019. My mother and father were not doing well. My father had lost his job and my mother was trying to work anywhere she could. She had not worked in a while, so there was not much she could do. I was working at a Denny’s to earn some money so that I could go to college. I was taking a year off and planned on starting in Sep 2020.
“In December 2019, this guy that was a regular started lightly hitting on me. He acted a little shy, but was well dressed and seemed to have a nice car and money. I started flirting back and let him take me out to some safe places a few times. He was a perfect gentleman and took me to places I couldn’t afford. I knew that eventually he would want sex, and I was willing because he was so nice, educated, treated me well. I was starting to think of him as a solid boyfriend. On Valentine’s Day we went to this nice place where we ate well and then had some drinks. He must have spiked the drinks, because two days later I woke up in Miami.
“I was in a hotel in Miami, and there wasn’t much to do at first when the pandemic hit, but soon the owners had made it clear that we were sex toys, there for the taking of anyone who paid enough. All the girls I met were young and pretty. They even had some woman come around who would provide us with all our makeup and clothes, if you could call he slutty wear we were given clothes. We didn’t leave the hotel for anything.